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World Premiere: Krzysztof Meyer’s “Sinfonia da requiem” in Katowice

Krzysztof Meyer’s Symphony No. 8 “Sinfonia da requiem,” will receive its world premiere in the Polish city of Katowice on 14 January 2011, performed by the Polish Radio Choir and Symphony Orchestra and the vocal ensemble Camerata Silesia conducted by Michail Jurowski.

Krzysztof Meyer comments on his piece as follows:

“I worked on the ‘Sinfonia da requiem’ during the years 2008/09. The idea behind this work originated a good deal earlier, however, during the 1990s, when I considered whether it would be possible for me to write a work concerning the subject of anti-Semitism and persecution of the Jews. Since my childhood, after all, I had been taught that anti-Semitism is a particularly shameful prejudice. I have unfortunately come across it repeatedly during the course of my life and still do, even in people whom I consider to be cultivated – as if they did not want to find out anything about it, about pogroms, the ghetto and the annihilation of the Jews.

The general form of the Symphony took shape when I became more closely acquainted with the oeuvre of the outstanding Polish poet Adam Zagajewski. From his many poems dealing with this subject, I selected four with contents that especially appealed to me.

The Symphony was written for choir and symphony orchestra and has five movements. The second movement, forming a musical commentary on the city of Jedwabny, is exclusively instrumental.”